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Darryl Piasecki

Managing PartnerSt Louis

Serves senior leaders on strategy, operations, and organizational topics, with particular emphasis on cross-functional opportunities and empowering chief operating officers, recognizing their critical role in accelerating transformation and delivering enterprise-wide impact

Darryl advises clients at the nexus of strategy and operations and serves as the managing partner of McKinsey’s St. Louis office. A senior leader in the firm’s Operations Practice, he heads McKinsey’s flagship initiative on COO Excellence, where he collaborates with operational executives to tackle their most pressing challenges and achieve transformative results. Drawing on deep expertise and a passion for operational impact, Darryl works hand in hand with operations leaders—whether newly appointed COOs or experienced executives—to strengthen their leadership, drive organizational performance, and deliver measurable, enterprise-wide value.

Darryl’s work spans a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, chemicals, agriculture, logistics, consumer goods, and financial services. His experience includes:

  • leading enterprise-wide transformations for industrial companies, encompassing diagnostics of strategy, operations, sourcing, and commercial functions
  • shaping cross-functional strategies to optimize operations, including demand planning in logistics and agriculture
  • crafting multiyear growth strategies to help organizations meet ambitious enterprise-wide goals
  • enhancing customer experience and market strategies, such as market-back growth in chemicals; product design, pricing, and demand shaping in logistics; and market-specific strategies in financial services
  • leveraging advanced modeling tools to address complex challenges, including capital project planning for transportation providers and production planning in agriculture
  • supporting strategic decisions on acquisitions and market entry

Beyond his client work, Darryl is deeply committed to fostering economic growth in the St. Louis region, partnering with civic and business leaders to advance development initiatives.

Before joining McKinsey, Darryl was a F/A-18 weapons systems officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a TOPGUN graduate and held multiple instructor and leadership roles.

Published work

How COOs maximize operational impact from gen AI and agentic AI,” McKinsey & Company, March 2025

Delivering the strategy: The COO agenda,” McKinsey & Company, November 2024

Stepping up: What COOs will need to succeed in 2023 and beyond,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Resilience: The whole-company fitness challenge,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021

Past Experience

US Marine Corps
F/A-18 weapons systems officer

Education

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
MBA

University of Missouri
MS, systems engineering

US Naval Academy
BS, economics